The nonprofit group tasked with creating a memorial on the National Mall in D.C. for troops who served in the war on terrorism took a step Wednesday toward looking for a place to build.
The Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation, or GWOT, was tasked by Congress with organizing, fundraising, and constructing a memorial on the Mall, the home to other national memorials and monuments that honor service members from previous wars and former presidents.
D.C.-based Winstanley Architects and Planners was named as the executive architect for the project on Wednesday. The firm’s first order of business will be selecting a spot to build so architects interested in proposing designs can lay out memorials that would fit into the landscape.
The announcement marks the beginning of a 24-step process to design and build the memorial according to standards set out by the National Capital Planning Commission and National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission.
“Significant commemorative work such as this memorial require a well-laid roadmap to capture the purpose and vision of the project as well as move through necessary government approval processes,” said Michael Winstanley, founding principal at the firm and project director for the NCPC Memorials and Museums Master Plan.
Similar to the process for creating the Vietnam War Memorial, once a site has been selected, the firm will kick off a design competition for artists around the country to submit memorial designs.
About 3 million people have been deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, to fight in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries in which terrorist groups had strongholds.
Of that figure, 52,000 were wounded in action, 7,000 were killed, and 20 percent have returned home with nonphysical wounds, including post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, according to military stats.
